In winter sports such as ice skating and hockey the blades of an ice skate are the point of contact for all of the forces generated in turns, spins, jumps, etc. Ice skates typically have a convex shape along a length of the skate blade and a concave shape across the width of the blade, defining two edges along the length of the blade. A skater can use either of these two edges in executing maneuvers on the ice surface. In order to maintain a desired blade configuration, a skate sharpening machine must be configured to create a groove along the length of the blade such that the two edges are of equal height.
As skate blades differ from one pair to another, the sharpening of the skate blade to a required profile has long been considered to be part art and part science. The operator of a skate sharpening machine is required to first dress a grinding wheel to have the desired contour and then ensure that during the grinding process the centerline of the contour on a wheel coincides with the centerline of the blade along its full length. If this is not done an irregular groove will be created along the length of the blade, with one edge being higher/lower than the other.
The dressing of the skate sharpening grinding wheel is traditionally carried out using a single point diamond dresser that is pivoted about an axis generally perpendicular to an axis of rotation of the grinding wheel. The single point diamond dresser is slowly swung through an arc that intersects the outer periphery of the grinding wheel, removing material from the wheel to create and define a grinding wheel contour. Since the dresser pivots, the contour formed on the grinding wheel is a convex arcuate surface with a radius typically in the range of ⅜ inch to 15/8 inch. Generally speaking several passes are required to achieve a surface with the desired quality. Once the grinding wheel contour has been created, it may be used to create a complementary concave surface on the skate blade.
It would be desirable to provide an ice skate blade sharpening machine that uses a contouring tool which can create one of many different shaped contours on the grinding wheel, such that a desired contour may be ground into the skate blade during the sharpening process.